finished with the castle of otranto

I've been finished with The Castle of Otranto for awhile, but I've been lazy and not blogged about it. :)
So, I did really enjoy the novel and it more than met my expectations. I admit that I was expecting it to be a bit dull since it is such an old book, but I did like how it was written. Like I've said before though, the dialogue was a bit annoying to read because it was mixed in with the paragraphs.

My favorite part of the novel had to be the different characters. They were all so different with their own traits that made them really interesting. I even felt sorry for the "villain" of the novel at some points (which, I remember, is called a "grotesque"). My least favorite part, though, was probably all the supernatural occurrences, just because they were so "out there" (like a giant in the castle).

In my research of the book and the author for my research paper, I've found that Horace Walpole actually wrote another gothic novel (though less popular than his first) that is called The Mysterious Women, which I am excited to read and see if it's anything like The Castle of Otranto :)

The Castle of Otranto-5

Even though I'm not sure if I like Manfred, I'm positive that I like both his daughter, Matilda and the peasant and minister's son, Theodore. A ton of events take place in such a short book, so it's kind of hard to stop reading, but I'm at the end of the third chapter, which seems like a good stopping place.

Now, the reason I like Matilda is because she is nothing like her father. While her father and all his men have gone to search for the fleeing Isabella, she goes to the room where Theodore is locked in and lets him escape and gives him a sword and armor and tells him where to flee to. So, Matilda is incredibly different from Manfred.

Theodore was at first kind of annoying because of how he talked to and helped the Princess Isabella and then Matilda, but he is a very heroic character. After fleeing the castle, he finds Isabella hiding. He then comes across the strange knight that showed up at Otranto, who is also looking for Isabella. Theodore and the knight get into a fight, the knight gets seriously injured, then begs Isabella to come talk to him before he dies.

I stopped reading right when Isabella finds out that the knight is actually her father...:D This is a really good book and I can't wait to find out what happens...I might just have to stay up late to finish it :P

The Castle of Otranto-4

So, I've decided that I'm not sure if I like Manfred or not :) At the beginning he seemed like a pretty normal character, who was upset about his son dying...but then he wanted to marry Isabella, which made me not like him.

Now, however, I'm not sure. A lot has happened since Isabella escaped to the church to hide. The minister showed up to talk to Manfred about Isabella, then finds out that the peasant that helped her escape is actually his son that he had thought had died (which is the reason he joined the church). So, Manfred says that he will kill the minister's son if he doesn't return Isabella to the castle.

But then something else strange happens (which is totally not surprising at the point because this book is incredibly weird...) Some strange knight shows up at the castle saying that he is taking Isabella back to her parents and that he will take his rightful place as Prince of Otranto. So, I kind of feel bad for Manfred at this point because nothing seems to be going right for him...

And this is where I stopped reading because I felt like blogging about Manfred :D but now I'm going to go read some more...by the way, as annoying as the diaglogue is in the book, it is a really fast paced read...like something is always going on that keeps you interested, which is really cool :D yeah...

The Castle of Otranto-3

I've read the first chapter and half of the second so far and I've already come across so many "gothic" elements. By the way, each chapter is about 20 or so pages and there are 5 chapters total :)

The book starts out introducing the characters, like I've already blogged, then a large part of the plot is introduced (the prophesy) and a character is killed by a large helmet. After this happens, Manfred, the prince of Otranto, becomes a bit...crazy...but its really just all the grief from his son dying and the thought of losing his position as prince.

I think he's crazy because now he wants to marry Isabella himself, since his son obviously can't :D

He tells Isabella that she deserves more than a "sickly child" anyways and that soon he will be glad that his son is dead. Manfred wants to divorce his wife, who can't give him anymore heirs, and marry someone who is more capable.

Then, if that isn't weird enough, Isabella freaks out (which of course she should), then the gallery that they are in seems to become haunted, Isabella runs out (but the castle gates are locked, so she ends up trying to escape to the nearby church by using secret passages underground) she meets the peasant that was accused of somehow lifting the giant helmet and killing Conrad. Then they hear Manfred coming so Isabella goes through a trap door, but it closes making it impossible for the man to follow, so he trys to keep Manfred from thinking that anyone actually went through the trap door, so that Isabella can get away. Then a lot of other strange things happen (like there's a giant...supposedly...)

And I'm really excited to be reading this because it's actually a really good book, although it does kind of bother me that all the dialogue is just mixed in with the paragraphs without quotation marks or anything, so it's a bit difficult to read, but still very interesting. :P

The Castle of Otranto-2

Wow...so I haven't even read the first chapter and I can already see why this is claimed to be such a great gothic novel.

Like I've read, Walpole really sets the tone of his novel with the setting. During the first few pages he sets up a very happy setting with his son getting married, to a horrible one, where his son is killed (all within like 3 pages).

I don't think I've ever read a book where the plot takes such a dramatic change so early in.

The Castle of Otranto starts out as a very "normal" book. Walpole introduces the characters and the plot and setting. He introduces the Prince of Otranto and talks about his beautiful daughter and sickly son, who is to be married on the day that this book begins. He also introduces a key part of the plot: a curse on the family and its ownership of Otranto.

Then all this drama happens and you find out that his son has been crushed by the helmet of this giant statue...and that's where I stopped reading, so that I could blog about it. But, yeah, that's a lot to happen so quickly, and it already sets a *gothic* tone to the novel, so I'm ready to go keep reading and find out what other horrible things are going to happen...^_^

The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole

So, I figured I should definitely read this since I'm doing my research paper on it :) it took *forever* for it to get delivered though -.-

I've already done a lot of research on gothic novels and so I have an idea about this book. Although I still don't know exactly what to expect because the different sources I looked at for my annotated bibliography said different things about it; most sources praised the book, though. I'm excited to read what's claimed to be the first gothic novel :D

The introduction to the book claims that Walpole had a dream, which he turned into this book (which many of my research sources also claimed). That is only one among many facts that I've learned about Horace Walpole and The Castle of Otranto in my research (all of it very interesting).

I am expecting a lot from this book although I'm afraid of how it's written (like if it will be difficult to understand or something) because it was written so long ago (1764). But i'm still excited to read it...XD

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris

So, Ms. Cassell let me borrow this non-fiction book and I remembered reading a short story by the same author in our Bedford Readers, so I was pretty excited to read this.
The title did help with my excitement...i don't know why, but it's just a kind of unusual title...because it sounds kind of dumb and all...:D

Since I had read something by Sedaris before and it was really funny, I was hoping Me Talk Pretty One Day would be an amusing read too. I was not disappointed. David Sedaris is possibly the funniest author I have every read any books by. He is an incredibly interesting person and is also a really great writer!

This book is a collection of short stories of just moments in his life that he feels are important in some way. He writes about having a speech teacher at a young age, the many pets his family has gone through, learning to play the guitar (or not so much), his siblings and parents, and also the times when he was on drugs and attempting to do art as a living. All of his stories are very entertaining and I really can't wait to read another book by him (another book of short stories by him is amusingly called "Naked", so I'm hoping to come across it in our public/school library...I've gotta read a fiction book first because I want to keep my pattern up, but then (hopefully) I'll go back to reading about Sedaris ^_^